Tasmanian Chocolate Tomato Review (Dwarf Tomato Project)

Seeds from Popenko. An excellent early, I would even say super-early variety. Stout, tree-type dwarf about 1.5-2 ft (50-60 cm) tall. Grew it outdoors right in the ground. It was the very first plant to start setting fruit. The flavor is great for an early variety–none of that watery, sour nonsense, just a solid, classic tomato taste with a nice acidic kick.

The tomatoes are oblate, with a gorgeous red-brown color. You definitely need to tie it to a stake, mostly because the plant will simply flop over from the sheer weight of the tomatoes. The fruits aren’t small either, ranging from 3 to 7 oz (80-200g). Even as a seedling, this plant is a great-looking guy; built like a sturdy little mushroom with dark green, slightly crinkled (rugose) leaves.

Edited January 17, 2015 by Drosera

Svetlyachok-plus said:

An excellent early, I would even say super-early variety… Even as a seedling, this plant is a great-looking guy; built like a sturdy little mushroom with dark green, slightly crinkled leaves.

I second every word of this!!!

I got this variety from Kulik, and although his description claims it’s Potato Leaf (PL), my plants are definitely Regular Leaf (RL). Very short, stocky seedlings, and the first flower truss popped out right above the 6th leaf.

Svetlana, here is my (your) Tasmanian Chocolate:

At first, I doubted it because of the color (mine turned out a bit more on the red side) – I thought I had mixed up my seed cups… but no, it’s definitely him! I’ve never seen such foliage and plant structure on any other variety – it really is a “sturdy mushroom”. The foliage is thick, gorgeous, and rugose… the seedling literally looks like a cute little toy 👍

To be fair, in the greenhouse it shot up taller than me, and the tomatoes at the top canopy are even larger – I’ve got a couple hanging up there that are easily over a pound (500g).. 😳

Edited November 26, 2015 by Drosera

Ladies, do these do well in containers? What was the maximum height you got?

Semechka said:

Ladies, do these do well in containers? What was the maximum height you got?

Mine were in the ground outdoors, maxed out around 1.5 ft (50 cm).

My Tasmanian was about 3.6 ft (110 cm) tall. But all my tomatoes turn out taller than the official descriptions. I got the seedling from Lena (@Plena), and I’m super grateful to her. The color is awesome, a true brick-brown, and very tasty. The plant itself is stocky with heavy foliage. I only pinched off the inward-facing suckers, otherwise it would have turned into an absolute jungle. I am definitely planting it again next year!

Height in my greenhouse was 4 – 4.6 ft (1.2 – 1.4 m). Keep it fed, and it’ll pump out fruit right up until the first frost. I didn’t really prune the suckers, there weren’t that many anyway. Really liked the flavor.

Such a stout fellow as a seedling, didn’t stretch or get leggy at all.

Grew Tasmanian Chocolate for the first time. Seeds were from Popenko. The plants reached about 2.6 ft (0.8 m) tall. The fruits were very tasty, juicy, sweet, and absolutely gorgeous, weighing up to 10.5 oz (300 g). The overall harvest was great.

Seedling at 6 weeks:
Top view (same age)

The first fruit ripened on July 11 (seeds germinated on March 8):

In appearance, it looks just like our classic Russian tree-type dwarfs. It grew in open ground and barely broke 1.6 ft (0.5 m). I pinched off the suckers up to the first flower truss, and that was plenty.

The fruits were medium-sized, around 3.5-7 oz (100-200g), there were no runts. The color is typical for brown/black varieties, same on the inside (the color in the photo isn’t completely accurate). The flesh is meaty and smooth/buttery. The taste is sweet and rich. Even with the endless pouring rain we had, the flavor was saved by my clay soil amended with humus, wood ash, and mulch.

Seeds from Kulik via garnet (thanks, hun!)

It’s from the Dwarf Tomato Project lineup. All the project releases have that signature rugose foliage.

Yeah, mine was totally dwarf-sized, under 1.6 ft (50 cm), pushing out neat little fruits up to 7 oz (200g) in a cool terracotta color. The taste 👍, everyone loved it. Didn’t prune the suckers at all, there was nothing to remove anyway except some leaves just to let light into the fruit clusters. The leaf is regular (RL), but curled up tight like a fist, so much so that the flower trusses actually got buried inside the canopy.

I grew Tasmanian Chocolate from Popenko. Very vigorous plants, RL foliage, and just like the previous poster said: “curled up tight like a fist, the flower trusses got buried inside the canopy”.

The fruits averaged around 7 oz (200g), but I got plenty of 10.5 oz (300g) ones too, and one absolute record-breaker at 14.2 oz (402g).
They taste sweet and juicy, with a dark terracotta color (they look lighter in my photo). Since I planted them in the greenhouse embarrassingly late this year (June 5th!), some are still ripening indoors on my windowsill.

And yeah, even though they aren’t very tall (maxing out around 2.6 ft / 80 cm), they are so heavy with fruit that you absolutely have to tie them up, otherwise they’ll just flop sideways right onto their neighbors.

Edited September 25, 2019 by Prostoy chaynik

In terms of flavor among the project dwarfs, it ranks third for me (right after Wild Fred and Uluru Ochre). Otherwise, it doesn’t stand out much from the rest of the dwarf lineup.

Awesome, high-yielding, and delicious “gnome” (Dwarf Tomato Project). I grew it in a 3.1-gallon (12-liter) pot, it reached about 2-2.3 ft (60-70 cm) tall. The fruits are oblate, terracotta-colored, and the taste is just excellent and rich.